Page 264 - Communication Theory and Research

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European Soap Operas: the Diversification of a Genre 249

broadcasting tradition, for it comes to prominence, typically among the top rated
programmes for the country, in Britain, Germany and Scandinavia. Whether this
form could be made to succeed in France, Italy or Greece is unknown: while there
are many successful formats available for import across national boundaries, certain
choices are made, and these surely reveal the cultural assumptions and audience
expectations of a particular nation.
How should the apparent success of different forms or subgenres of the soap
opera in different countries be explained? We offer the possibility here that a
social-anthropological perspective which links family structures and ideological
systems may prove useful. For example, how should we explain the choice of the
dynastic type in the first locally made productions in Germany (Schwarzwaldklinik)
and in Sweden (Redereit)? Emmanuel Todd (1985) analyses the type of family rela-
tions (between fathers and sons and between husbands and wives) which char-
acterizes different European countries. Distinguishing between authoritarian and
individualist family types, he suggests that Germany and Sweden belong in the
authoritarian type, as inheritance is customarily unequal (that is, one son only
inherits and married sons continue cohabiting with their parents). The Anglo-
Saxon world, on the other hand, with equal inheritance and no cohabitation, is
characterized by Todd as individualist. If one accepts this mapping of family
structures and cultural assumptions, then the further link to the conditions for
production and reception of different subgenres of the soap opera within differ-
ent European countries is relatively straightforward.
In addition to considering the possible connections between the soap opera
world and the everyday culture of the audience, we suggest further that each of
the three subgenres creates a particular communicative relationship with the
viewers. Frye (1957; see also Chesebro, 1987) distinguishes among dramatic gen-
res by the way in which they establish relations between viewer and text. Five
types of communicative relationships – ironic, mimetic, leader oriented, roman-
tic and mythic – are derived from the characterization of the main characters’
intelligence and capacity to control the environment in comparison with those of
the viewers. Analysing the European subgenres of the soap opera according to
Frye’s scheme, we find that community soaps are mainly mimetic (positioning
the viewers with characters ‘like us’ on both dimensions), with some ironic
elements (characters whom we may feel superior to). Dynastic soaps are either
romantic, with leaders of a superior level of intelligence and capacity to control
the surroundings (recall the Swedish or German serials), or mythic, with leaders
who are superior in kind on both counts (the Greek soaps, faithful followers of
Dynasty and Dallas). Dyadic soaps, seemingly mimetic, go through mythic trans-
formations, in which (lost and existing) characters are found or rediscovered as
owning special powers.
The moral economy (Morley and Silverstone, 1990) of the soap opera is con-
nected with the kind of relationship it establishes with its viewers. The more
mimetic the subgenre – the less it escapes from the dilemmas of daily life – the
more it is socially responsible. Thus, the community subgenre is always socially
responsible. The dynastic soap may take one of two forms, depending on whether
it is anchored in a broader social reality, and dominated by a socially responsible
patriarch (Sweden, Germany) or situated in a fantasy world, and dominated by a